Ben Rhodes wins NASCAR Truck Series championship in wild overtime race at Phoenix

Even Ben Rhodes couldn’t believe he won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.

Four overtime restarts capped a caution-littered final stage, and Rhodes held off a strong push from Grant Enfinger to secure his second Truck Series title in three years.

“I can’t even believe it,” Rhodes told FOX Sports in his post-race interview. “This is so awesome, man. To go 25 laps into overtime, you know what that feels like? And almost lose it? Look at the freaking truck! It’s crazy!

“I didn’t think we were gonna make it. I thought we were gonna pop a tire. I thought anything that could have gone wrong was gonna go wrong.”

Rhodes took fifth in Friday night’s Craftsman 150, the race in which Christian Eckes — who ranks fifth in the Truck Series, the highest of any non-Championship 4 drivers — wound up taking the checkered flag.

But that didn’t matter to Rhodes, the series’ 2023 champion. The 26-year-old driver, who made headlines with his press conference after his 2021 title, sauntered into the media center late Friday evening wearing a heavy silver chain, goggles on his head and holding a Bud Light can.

“I was getting frustrated. I’m not gon’ lie, even if he won the championship,” Rhodes said as he belched, prompting one of many laughs during the presser. “I thought even if we won it, I would be so mad. I ain’t mad. I just let that roll right off the shoulders, here I am.”

Corey Heim, the top-seeded driver in the Truck Series, started on the pole and dominated Stage 2. In Lap 126, fellow Championship 4 driver Carson Hocevar ran up the track and into the back left side of Heim’s truck coming around a turn, sending Heim spinning.

That negated the chances of winning for Heim, who boasts a field-best 19 Top 10 finishes (12 of which were in the top five) and was last year’s Truck Series Rookie of the Year. In Lap 147, Heim slammed Hocevar into the wall and eliminated him from the race.

“It turned into such a wreck-fest,” Heim told reporters in the Phoenix Raceway media center afterward. “It’s ridiculous. What do we even say right now?”

There were 12 cautions in total on Friday. Eight of them came during the final stage and overtime.

In his FOX Sports post-race interview, Heim said his move wasn’t payback for Hocevar wrecking him: “It wasn’t retaliation. I had no sideforce, he put it on my door, and I wrecked.”

“I just messed up,” Hocevar told reporters outside the infield care center after being eliminated. “I just tried to slow him up and messed up.”

Hocevar was particularly apologetic in his comments, but Heim wasn’t buying it.

“That’s just what he does,” Heim said. “He’ll wreck you and apologize, and then he’ll do it again the next day.”

The race dragged well past the points that Heim and Hocevar were in contention.

Twenty-nine laps ended up being added to the 150-mile race that took two hours and 30 minutes. Each time the field of trucks restarted in overtime, an incident quickly prompted a yellow flag.

When Heim wrecked Hocevar, Enfinger was three laps away from the championship. Enfinger had been running in third, holding a steady lead over Rhodes in fourth. That wreck brought the two of them side-by-side, and each restart put the championship up for grabs.

On the fourth and final overtime restart, in Lap 178, Enfinger surged from 13th and caught Rhodes on a turn. But he couldn’t pass him. And afterward, Rhodes and his team expressed their respect for Enfinger and how he didn’t make contact with him.

“Thanks to him for racing me clean,” Rhodes said. “I think we all raced each other very well tonight. I just love it. This is great. Thank you to Duke and Rhonda Thorson, ThorSport Racing. This is a fantastic organization.”

He added: “We’ve built a heck of a program, or Duke and Rhonda have over the years, I guess. It’s been around longer than I’ve been around, so I’m just proud to be a part of it.”